WhatsappPresident Trump left Israel, declaring that peace was imminent. All that was left to do was the release of the hostages and an international security force to ensure Hamas would disarm. The first happened, and the second has yet to happen and probably never will.
Most of the challenges people have faced with the “peace plan” would only occur if Hamas were to disarm or if the International Security Force (ISF) were present. Still, none of that has materialized, and it probably won’t. Whether Trump understood it from the beginning or not, non-Muslim Brotherhood Sunni Arab states were never comfortable with Turkey and Qatar being involved with the Gaza ISF. As I mentioned in an earlier article, it was the UAE and Saudi Arabia that refused to be part of the initiative if it involved Turkish ground forces.
Netanyahu’s goal in this stage of the war was to retrieve the hostages and leave Hamas in a state where it could no longer pose a real threat to Israel. The advent of the yellow line running through Gaza as more than a military armistice line, but rather a sort of new border area, has left Hamas cornered and ultimately weakened. True, there is tremendous pressure for Israel to allow Gaza reconstruction to commence, but once again, Netanyahu’s reliance on Finance Minister Smotrich to freeze Israel’s budget allocated for the project has ensured there is no following phases to Trump’s peace plan as long as Hamas doesn’t disarm, which it won’t voluntarily and since no one else is willing to go in and do it, the current situation remains as is.
Israel ultimately remains in control of 53% of Gaza, Hamas is kept to a degraded state, unable to launch a real offensive into Israel, and Israel establishes a new political boundary called the yellow line – extending de facto military control over Gaza for the foreseeable future.
While Trump did not necessarily intend for any of this to turn out the way it has, it is clear Prime Minister Netanyahu did, and for the first time since October 7th, he has outplayed both Qatar and Turkey. While this sort of strategy has bought Israel time and some territory, Netanyahu’s maneuver in the political arena will only be seen as a masterpiece if he and Israel’s defense establishment can prepare for the dual threat of a Turkey-Iran alliance that is fast careening towards the Jewish State.
